The engine that makes schools work: from the cook to the cleaner

PalmWhen you enter the school, they ensure everyone's safety. At lunchtime, they prepare and serve the meals. And when everyone leaves, they make sure the classrooms are spotless. They are the cooks, the custodians, the cleaning staff, and the cafeteria workers. They all improve the lives of teachers and students, and without them, schools couldn't function at their full potential.

Luis Paris

Cafeteria Coordinator and Cook at CEIP de Prácticas (Palma)

Lluís París's life has been intertwined with CEIP de Prácticas since his early years. He was a student, sent his daughters there, and for the past 20 years, he has been the cook and cafeteria coordinator, a position his family has held for four decades. "I feel, and we feel, like an important part of the school. There's a real sense of community, and we're like a family. The school administration has always supported every initiative we propose," he explains. Between him and his mother, they feed more than 220 students every day, as well as some teachers who are won over by the delicious dishes prepared by hand in the school kitchens.

París understands that the cafeteria is an educational space on par with all the other activities at the school. "I'm responsible for conveying this to the supervisors, who aren't just supervisors, but cafeteria teachers," he explains. "We have a great responsibility, not only because of the diversity of children we care for, but also because some have educational needs, allergies... And we give them the best care we can," she adds.

The work done in the kitchen has changed a lot over the years, due to the multitude of regulations that have been passed to guarantee hygiene and safety. "We monitor the temperature at which the food comes out of the kitchen or the freezer and the temperature it's kept at at every moment until it's cooked," he explains. "To give you an idea, we disinfect oranges with water and bleach, something nobody does at home," he says with a laugh.

Despite the difficulties, he's happy with his job, with the contact with the children, and with being able to be useful, both when cooking the dishes and afterward, when serving them and attending to the students. "At 2 p.m. they come down from class, we take attendance, and everything starts running smoothly. Every day something happens: a child gets sick, another with special educational needs is upset... and everyone needs to receive appropriate and respectful attention," he assures. And he sums it up: "I'm a jack-of-all-trades for any job where they need me, because I'm experienced and the monitors are younger and sometimes they encounter situations that are new to them," he explains.

The foundation of his and his team's work is "love and positive reinforcement." "With three-year-olds, for example, we reward their effort in trying the food, not so much whether they finish it," he says. Afterward, the information is shared with the families so they can see their progress. "Some of them sell the food and ask us how to prepare certain dishes they eat at school but not at home. There's a healthy and constant interaction with the community," he explains.

Margarita Estévez

Caretaker at CEIP Ses Rotes Velles (Calvià)

The caretaker's office at a school is a vital hub. Everyone passes through it, and many people go there when they have a technical or maintenance problem. Margarita Estévez has been the caretaker at CEIP Ses Rotes Velles for 35 years, where everyone knows and loves her. "I feel very valued and useful. People trust me, and I also look after the children, not because it's my responsibility, but because it comes naturally to me," she says. She's the first person to arrive at the school, turns on the hallway lights, airs out the classrooms, replenishes the toilet paper, soap, and everything else she deems necessary so that when teachers and students arrive, they find a welcoming environment. She keeps the space clean and ready so that everything runs smoothly. "I manage everything that comes in and goes out, and if there are any maintenance issues, I'm the one who has to report them, I'm the one who receives the suppliers, and I'm the liaison between the management team and the staff who work at the school," she says. Laughing, she assures us that without a caretaker, the school couldn't function. "If I'm absent, and no one comes to replace me, they miss me. Because if anything happens, I'm the one who has the solutions, who knows who to call to get it fixed," she explains.

Her workday is full-time, and in addition to overseeing technical and maintenance aspects, she tries to be attentive to people. She gets to know the families, listens to their concerns, and supports the children when they need it. "There's a lot of human interaction here, and that's what I like most. It's not just a job; it's a responsibility I take very seriously. This is my home," she adds. She won't be leaving CEIP Ses Rotes Velles: "It's a place where I grew up and where I've always felt at home."

Magdalena Garau

Cleaner at IES Son Pacs (Palma) with 35 years of experience

In an educational center where hundreds of students and teachers pass through every day, leaving thousands of shoes and hundreds of pieces of trash that end up in the bins (or on the floor), the work of professionals like Magdalena Garau is essential. With more than 35 years of experience as a civil servant cleaner for the Regional Ministry of Education and six years dedicated to IES Son Pacs, she and her colleagues ensure that "all areas of the center, including the temporary classrooms, are cleaned every day." Cleaning is usually done between 2 and 3 p.m., after the students have left their classrooms and before the afternoon shift arrives.

They clean all the classrooms for ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education), Bachillerato (Upper Secondary Education), the workshops, and also the temporary classrooms, which have increased in number over the years. "But they have air conditioning and it's nice to be there," she says, laughing. Garau emphasizes that the whole team works carefully to ensure everything is perfectly tidy and ready for the next users. She enjoys her work and highlights that the students respect her and help her move heavy furniture when she asks. She also appreciates that "the administration and teachers are always mindful of the cleaners' needs." One of the biggest challenges is that most of the center's cleaning staff is over 60, so she insists that "they hire someone else, because there's a lot of work and we're running around all day." She also explains that when there's construction or painting in the summer, they can't coordinate with the work and "we have to clean everything again," but she says she faces it with determination.

Magdalena clearly remembers her 25 years at the IES Politécnico: "We had wooden boards, more than 300 of them, and one summer we gave them a thorough cleaning. When we came back in September, they had been removed and replaced with new ones. We were very upset." For her, her work is essential: "They couldn't function without us," she summarizes. With all this experience behind her, Magdalena continues to bring professionalism to Son Pacs, and also to advocate for the school's needs: "I started cleaning when I was 24, and now there are things that are harder for me; that's why I'm asking them to hire someone else. Son Pacs is a large school."

Maria Roig

Head chef and cooperative member at the Es Liceu school (Palma)

The kitchen at the Es Liceu Shopping Centre is a space open to everyone. This is one of the guiding principles of Maria Roig, the centre's head chef, who has worked there for 19 years. "Together with my colleagues, we are the center's food machinery. We place orders, check that they arrive in good condition, prepare the menus to meet nutritional standards, make the bread rolls for recess…," she lists. She starts work at 8 a.m., and from then on, the supplies begin to arrive. An important task is reviewing what needs to be cooked that day and checking it against reported allergies to prepare differentiated menus. Then, the machinery kicks into gear, and they prepare food for 500 people. Beyond the culinary work, the kitchen team also educates the families. "We have a dining committee where we explain the reasoning behind each menu item, so they understand that nothing is left to chance," she explains.

She feels valued by the school, but not always by the families or the students. "Sometimes they don't believe that everything we serve is homemade, and it all is. This idea gets through to the children, and then they don't appreciate the food we prepare," she laments.

In nine years dedicated to the school kitchen, many anecdotes have accumulated, and one of them is linked to an invertebrate that most people don't like very much. "We cooked broad beans with noodles, and it was a disaster because the children didn't understand that a purée could have noodles in it, and they thought they were worms. It was so shocking that even the families asked what had happened, and we had to explain that it was a Mallorcan dish, that it was made that way, and that they weren't worms."

Carolina Rodríguez

Worker in the canteen of the IES Portocristo (Manacor)

The day Carolina Rodríguez was offered a job in the cafeteria at IES Portocristo, she wasn't sure about it. She had just come from working in a butcher shop, and the change was drastic. Now, however, she wouldn't leave this job for anything. "The kids at the school are like my own," she admits. "I'm the bad cop. I have two other colleagues. But when the students want to buy something between classes, knowing it's forbidden, they send them to me so I can tell them they can't," she explains, laughing. Her routine begins at 7 a.m., when she arrives at the cafeteria, turns on the oven, puts in the baguettes, and greets the children who come in to order sandwiches for recess. "I like what I do, and I'm happy because I'm in contact with people, with kids, some of them very naughty, but you can't help but like them," she confesses. The cafeteria operates with one clear principle: no student should go hungry. So, if a student forgets their snack one day, they can go, they'll be given food, and they'll be given credit for the payment. This policy is especially important for those children who don't bring a snack because they have financial difficulties at home. "Both the school and the cafeteria close at one o'clock. These children shouldn't have to pay for anything, under any circumstances," she states.

When asked what change she'd like to see made to improve her work, she makes a seemingly simple request: "There are two places available. Please, make two lines, because there's always chaos," she asks.